Do brewers read BA reviews?

I've gotten beermail from Shane Welch regarding a review I did on a Sixpoint beer. I was pleasantly surprised that he does check reviews. In talking with a person who works at Sixpoint, they do see the reviews of their beers and take it feedback seriously. Even ran into the brewer for Blind Bat and found that he gets notifications as his beers get reviewed. He read a review I did and liked the information.

 

Definitely. Brewers, stores, bars, all do it. A lot of them read the forums too. And yes, they definitely will contact people from time to time. (been there done that a number of times) In my experience they're mostly looking for constructive dialogue, or to defend themselves a bit. But there have been plenty of horror stories.

 

Reviews are definitely a good source of feedback and can certainly help them find ways to improve their product but ultimately the bottom line is what I would look at. Shipyard gets a lot of flack on these message boards and in reviews but I doubt Alan Pugsley is loosing much sleep over a few bad reviews when he's pumping out 120,000+ barrels a year.

 

Publicly, Mother Earth Brewing co (Cali not NC) flipped a shit over user reviews on their blog. http://beerpulse.com/2011/03/mother...controversial-post-claiming-boycott-of-ba-rb/

Privately, I got a BM from someone at sixpoint after I posted a review of one of their beers that I didn't think was overly negative explaining that they don't brew to style specifically and that brewers brew the sort of beers that they like and that if I thought of it that way, I might appreciate their beers more. Don't remember the exact wording or exactly who from sixpoint it was since BM is lost, but that was the jist of it. I was understandingly surprised that anyone actually reads what I write.

 

Lets hope the ones that do can handle/work with criticism.

 

Many do - I know I've gotten BMs from Tyranena, Good People, and Olde Burnside, all responding to potential QC issues suggested by my less-than-stellar reviews. The latter two were even kind enough to offer replacement bottles, although Good People never did ship me the beer they said they would. :_(

 

There's not much busy work in brewing. Mostly just waiting.

 

I know the head brewer where I used to work does, and my current coworker who is also a full time brewer elsewhere does as well.

 

I wrote a review about a Stone beer and commented that I didn't think it was particularly fresh and the hops were quite subdued. I received some correspondence directly from Greg Koch, he had me grab the bottle and check the date. Also requested the establishment where I made the purchase. He was strait up about it and just wanted to make sure I had fresh beer.

Outstanding brewer and businessman, that Mr. Koch.

 

I actually got a Beer Mail from the brewer at Sixpoint after I reviewed Sweet Action last year. I rated it pretty highly though, really loved that beer.

 

None of the brewers I know do. They find the idiotic comments of people pretending they know more than they really do too annoying.

 

So they read them then?

 

If you'd been at the right place at the right time during Philly beer week a couple of years ago it wouldn't have been a dream to have Jean Van Roy, Armand Debelder, and Frank Boon all in the same room with you and a couple of dozen other people, all talking about their brewing and their beers while some of their better beers were being served for tasing and discussion and comparison.

 

Probably so...and as long as it remains just a dream, and has never played any part in their official (or unofficial) business plan, they should be OK. If they in any way predicate their success on becoming popular on BA then, as discussed in another thread, they will be one of the breweries that eventually falls by the wayside.

 

If a restaurant has 4 or 3 stars I'm going to read the reviews and see where the problems are (service, food quality, etc.)

If I were a brewery/brewer and my beer was getting reviews in the low to mid 3's or even worse I would definitely want to read consumer reviews to see in what areas the low marks were coming from.

I know Finch's here in Chicago reads reviews. They retweeted my 3.05/5 review of their Threadless IPA for some reason....

 

That was definitely Sixpoint owner Shane Welch. I too received a personal BM after reviewing one of his beers. IIRC, he stated pretty much the same thing: that he brews to taste, not to style, and that people going into a beer expecting one thing or another, that they may not get the intended experience. Definitely cool that he gets personal with consumers.

 

Visit the Better Beer Authority website and read the comments of their Arrogant Bastard review.

 

I have had a few instances of contact by people from breweries, so they def. read the reviews. Won't comment on which ones and who, but one was from someone already mentioned as having contacted others, another was a treat to read as it was from one of my absolute favorite brewers.

 

Bavarian Barbarian Brewing anyone?